News and commentary on Caribbean culture, literature, and the arts

November 2, 2017November 2, 2017

Miami art professor turns American flags into KKK hoods

[Many thanks to Teo Freytes for bringing this item to our attention.] Caleb Park (Fox News) reports that, in Florida, University of Miami professor Billie Lynn sparked outrage for her art exhibit displaying U.S. flags as Ku Klux Klan hoods; this exhibition will be on display until November 12.

The flags shaped like KKK hoods had the eyes burnt out with nothing but darkness behind them and sat on poles with bases shaped like Nazi swastikas. The artwork is part of the University of Miami’s annual faculty art show, gallery director Milly Cardoso told the Miami New Times.

Billie Grace Lynn, a University of Miami associate professor of sculpture, calls it “American Mask,” a work, she writes on her personal site, that suggests “bigotry and racism are hiding behind our flag.”

“This is disgusting. This is disrespectful,” Patrick Young, a black employee who works in the same building as the UM art gallery, told WSVN. “I can’t see it being a positive message any way you put it.”

The artwork, which will be on display until Nov. 12, has angered many who say it defaces the American flag and is outright offensive. “What can this actually help?” Young said. “Burning an American flag? I have no idea what this symbolizes, what this helps out. Who does this reach?” Lynn told the University of Miami News this was the intent of her piece – to strike up conversation.

She said she was talking to a construction worker who was angry about her artwork – and she was able to explain its meaning. “I asked him what he thought it meant and he said, ‘It’s racist.’ And I said, ‘Well, it is racist, it’s about racism. It’s about people hiding their racism behind the flag, behind their patriotism.’ Instantly all of his angry energy dissipated as he had this realization. This is what democracy is. It’s messy business and it requires us to talk with each other.”

The UM professor and artist said she was inspired to create the piece after watching people walking with American and Nazi flags during the protests in Charlottesville, Va. “I just thought, that’s what needs to be protested—that the American flag is positioned in between those two symbols of hatred and racism,” she said. “If there was ever a time to show this work, it’s now.” [. . .]